St Brigid’s will return to Croke Park to face Dingle in the All-Ireland Club SFC final two years on from their heartbreaking loss to a Conor Glass-inspired Glen team
In what seemed like a very short space of time, St Brigid’s went from being in pole position to win a second All-Ireland club title to being Championship also-rans in their own county.
Two defeats, some eight months apart have gnawed at the soul of this St Brigid’s team. One moment of genius from Conor Glass meant Glen were crowned All-Ireland champions at Croke Park and, in September of 2024, they relinquished their Roscommon and Connacht titles following a quarter-final loss to Padraig Pearses.
Some teams try not to dwell on defeats. St Brigid’s, All-Ireland winners back in 2013, leaned into the hurt and used it as fuel to drive them on this season.
On Sunday week, they’ll return to Croker for another crack at bringing the Andy Merrigan Cup back to Kiltoom with Dingle standing in their path.
Defender Paul McGrath, who turned in a Man-of-the-Match display in Sunday’s four-point semi-final win over Scotstown, says the pain of 2024 has spurred them on this term.
“Yeah, look, it’s been massive obviously. That hurt a lot that year,” said McGrath.
“But I’d say the following year probably hurt more when we lost to Pearses in Roscommon. “Every year, we just want to win Roscommon and then see what comes after that. Because Roscommon is such a hard championship to win.
“You have five-six teams there that can beat anyone on any day. And I think that year probably hurt the most. We had to lick our wounds and see what we can do to come back better this year.
“You lean on it a bit. But during games, you don’t want to be thinking about that, you just have to think what’s in front of you and use all the training you’ve put in over the year to just get over the line. Because when you’re out playing, you’re not thinking of Glen two years ago. I think it’s during the training. That’s where you grab that and you’re like, drive it on here and we can do something special.”
While St Brigid’s have a team brimming with attacking flair, their semi-final win in a bitterly cold Kingspan Breffni on Sunday was forged from a defensive masterclass.
From last-gasp goal-line clearances, brilliant point-blank saves from Conor Carroll and textbook near-hand tackles, Anthony Cunningham’s men put on a clinic in Cavan town and also nullified the influence of a certain Rory Beggan.
Having kicked 0-11 in the Ulster Club final win over Kilcoo, the Monaghan shot-stopper scored one ’45 as St Brigid’s kept their nerve and their discipline.
“I think we tried not to make it a massive emphasis throughout the three weeks. Obviously, when you watch the Kilcoo game, he (Beggan) was in control and that’s probably how they won that game,” stated McGrath.
“I think we just said, early on, ‘Look, no fouls outside the arc. Just clean tackles. If they kick over a two-pointer, then fair play to them, they deserve them, but let’s just not give it to them on a plate for Beggan to pop over.’ I thought we did very well on that.
“To be fair, it’s something management said all year: we’re not a team that concede two-point frees. And that sort of gave us the confidence as well – look, just go out and play our own game and we won’t concede them.”
Dingle illustrated against both St Finbarr’s and Ballyboden that they have a knack for two-pointers when the chips are down and McGrath knows what lies in store in the decider.
“We saw yesterday (Saturday), they’re just never out of the game,” added McGrath.
“As footballers, they’re just off the chart – Geaney, all them, left, right foot, it’s going to be a different level altogether, I think a different challenge.
“They’re probably similar to us with the fast attacks and, as well, just unreal footballers.
“So we just have to do our homework on them and go at the game as we did today. Just lean on our strengths as well. We’ll do a bit of homework on them, but what’s important is to do what we do best. And if we can do that, we’ll have a great chance of winning that game and any game.”
